September 03, 2003
CUBA....Is the trade embargo on Cuba a good thing? Randy
Paul, a liberal who's very knowledgable on Latin American affairs — and
someone who fully recognizes the loathsomeness of Fidel Castro's regime —
says it's probably not.
UPDATE: Atrios has more.
Posted by Kevin Drum at September 3, 2003 09:33 PM
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ONe of my trolls was incensed that MEChA - you know, those
commie-nazi-racists - was sponsoring cultural exchanges with Cuba. He
of course thought this meant they were sending people for "communist
indoctrination."
Interesting that he thought visiting Cuba would make one more likely to be a communist - is it such a lovely place?
but, anyway, the truth is a visit to CUba would make most sane people abandon their Stalinist roots tout de suite.
I don't know much about the specifics of the trade embargo against
Cuba, but have always thought it pretty damn embarrassing that a big,
wealthy, powerful nation like the US can't manage to carry on a
civilized relationship with a poor island neighbor just 90 miles away.
The question is framed with typical American arrogance. What do
Americans have to offer Cubans? Higher infant mortality rates? Drugs
at ripoff prices? Foul and unhealthy carbonated "beverages"?
dysfunctional, phony democracy? a better apartheid than the South
African version? 1, 2, 3, many Vietnams? Put your own house in order,
America.
But since you ask, of course the embargo is a good thing. It keeps
US influence to a minimum and deprives US corporations of a market. I'm
all for it.
Cuba can survive with out the US ...it has Canada and Mexico and
Europe to trade with. Having said that, the American tourist would
certainly boost the Cuban economy. Americans can vacation in Cuba if
they out of Toronto or Montreal.
Cuba's problem is that the wages are so low they can't afford to buy foreign products
Canada and Cuba have had good relations for years
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cuba/exhibit-soon-en.asp
It's a favorite vacation spot for many Canadians....Canada rivals
Italy as the largest supplier of foreign tourists to Cuba's famed
beaches.
Canada also help build many of the resorts there ie:
http://www.netssa.com/cuba.html
http://www.el-senador.com/en/index_np.shtml
Canadian-financed terminal at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.
And Cuba is catching up with the computer world
LAVAL, Que., May 16 — Consortium Silicon Island, in collaboration
with the commercial Section of the Embassy of Cuba in Ottawa, will
receive a high level delegation of the Ministry of Information
Technologies and Communications of Cuba in Laval on Friday. The
Delegation will present the main priorities of the Government of Cuba
for the development of its information technology (IT) industry, as well
as a vast project for the computerization of the Cuban society. Cuba
seeks to establish strategic alliances with Canadian companies in
various high-tech sectors, it said, and Consortium Silicon Island has
the principal mission of marketing IT products and services, developing
strategic alliances and expanding exports. The Cuban delegation will be
represented by Melchor Felix Gil Morell, vice-minister of the Ministry
for Informatics and Communications; Juan Enrique Marañon Depestre,
president of the Cuban Postal Service; Hugo Andrés Fernández Mac Beath
of the Directing Regulation and Standards Ministry; and Margarita
Castañeda Gallego, a specialist from the Ministry for the Agency of
Control and Supervision. Industry Canada and representatives of
organizations and companies of information technologies will take part
in this meeting as well.
From what I know about Cuba, is that they have a relativly strong
educational base. When the embargos go, chances are that the Cuban
economy will skyrocket, forcing Castro out of power.
In my mind, it's more about forcing a negative end to Cuba, than removing Casto itself. Which is not a good thing.
The U.S.--Cuba history is very, very complex and most of my fellow
Americans only know about a few of the major events without much context
or analysis of the motives and issues at work, unfortunately. It's hard
to even know where to start. But as far as the embargo goes:
As a foreign policy, it presumably has had specific goals it wanted
to achieve: in terms of accelerating the fall of Castro or accelerating a
transition(return?) to capitalist democracy it has spectacularly
failed. Maybe 40+ years just hasn't been enough time. In contrast, as a
warning to other countries about the consequences of defying American
will and property, it can be argued that it was a success and continues
to be.
As a security policy, the decision of Eisenhower, Dulles and others
to isolate Cuba (plus the Bay of Pigs) clearly pushed Castro into the
arms of the USSR which soon led to the Missile Crisis. As in Guatemala
and Iran, the tragedy is that if we had been wiser, accepted some land
reform and compensated expropriation of some American investments,
Castro would likely have been more of a moderate. Castro didn't start
out as a Marxist/Leninist, he started out as a populist fighting against
the corrupt oligarchy under Batista...In any case, I have yet to hear a
good argument from anybody that the embargo specifically has ever
directly increased our security. It certainly didn't deter Castro from
sending support to Ethiopia, Angola, or Nicaragua or isolate him
militarily, or weaken his mythic appeal to other would-be
revolutionaries jeopardizing the property of American corporations.
In terms of international opinion, credibility and leadership, the
last decade of UN votes calling for an end to the embargo have revealed
us to be overwhelmingly isolated, usually on the order of 163-2 with
Israel being the sole nation that votes with us. But then again, if we
gave Cuba the same aid we give Israel, Cuba would probably vote with us
too...
The moral argument/posturing is punctured from many angles--largely
through our history of supporting, arming, and training dictatorships
for decades who make Castro look like a choir boy. It is also punctured
by a hypocritical, eager yet effective U.S. trade policy with China as
well as other nations with intense social repression.
The blatant terrorism, hijackings and bombings that some Cuban exiles
have waged over the years against the Castro regime from the safety of
U.S. shores also bears contemplation as Bush accuses other nations of
coddling terrorists.
Furthermore, even if it is somehow moral to refuse trade with Cuba
via whatever reason, how is it moral to demand and enforce that other
nations refuse to trade with Cuba as well? This is also where the fine
distinction between an embargo and a blockade becomes a semantic
distraction.
The first pillar of a moral argument should be its consistency, no? If so, ours has crumbled pretty much beyond recognition IMO.
In any case, yes, the embargo should be lifted. No, Bush will never
do so. If anything, I would be unsurprised if he invaded Cuba before the
next election. He must win Florida.
(You heard it here first.)
Before switching to my current employer, I worked for a big 5
consulting firm based out of Chicago. It was always fun watching the
American guys who came to work on projects over here (UK) chewing
through the finest Havanas at formal functions with that sort of "caught
sneaking food from the fridge" pleasure / guilt thing clearly going on.
I don't think there can be any doubt that the American embargo has
kept Castro in power at least 3 decades longer than he was going to get
if left to his own devices.
It's a Dr Pepper question - you raise the embargo, what's the worst that can happen?
Castro wouldn't want the embargo lifted - and for obvious reasons.
One trade starts flowing relatively freely there it would be harder to
control things.
Right now the prime incentive is to please Castro. After the embargo
another incentive would be installed: the desire for wealth (if not
outright greed)
The embargo gives Castro an excuse: "It's not my fault your lives are terrible, it's those darn Americans."
(See also: Hussein, S.)
"The blatant terrorism, hijackings and bombings that some Cuban
exiles have waged over the years against the Castro regime from the
safety of U.S. shores also bears contemplation as Bush accuses other
nations of coddling terrorists."
I just can't summon the name of that guy living unmolested in FL to whom
this applies. Something German and monosyllabic, IIRC. He has reported
ties to the explosion of an airliner, in particular. He doesn't seem to
interest anyone in DC or the FL statehouse.
John,
You're thinking of Orlando Bosch.
In evaluating the Cuban Embargo, I think that we need to consider not
just the material effects of the embargo on Cuba itself, but whether or
not the imposition of the embargo, as a demonstration of US will and
resolve, can be credited with preventing the occurances of any imitators
during the Cold War. If we had sat back and never instituted the
embargo, would the Soviets have successfully encouraged other
"liberation" groups elsewhere in the Caribbean?
I myself am not a big fan of embargoes as a foreign policy tool as I
don't see why otherwise already impovershed and put upon civilians
should have to bear the brunt of our hostility to unfriendly regimes -
but I'm just not sure that judgements of the effectiveness of this
particular embargo should be limited to just it's effects within Cuba.
If we had sat back and never instituted the embargo, would the
Soviets have successfully encouraged other "liberation" groups
elsewhere in the Caribbean?
You mean, would we have been driven to undermine Soviet/Cuban backed
regimes in Nicaragua and Grenada with military force and covert actions,
and back right-wing military dictators oppressive regimes to prevent
Soviet/Cuban-backed socialist/communist regimes from coming to power in
much of the rest of Latin America and the Carribean, then, yeah, that
might have happened if we didn't enforce the embargo.
Then again, that might have happened if we had imposed an embargo on Cuba.
In fact, one can probably argue that regional opposition to the US
embargo increased hostility toward the US and increased receptiveness of
populations in the region to Soviet/Cuban propaganda that portrayed the
US as imperialistic and exploitive, and thus made the problems worse,
not better, outside of Cuba.
"If we had sat back and never instituted the embargo, would the
Soviets have successfully encouraged other "liberation" groups elsewhere
in the Caribbean?"
The argument is that there were other policy options. Either 1)
sitting back and doing nothing or 2)imposing an embargo and organizing
other hostilities such as Bay of Pigs were not the only options. Indeed,
false options are a big part of the hawkish, market-fundamentalist,
"neo-con" rhetoric that gets us into and then escalates these messes.
Don't believe the hype that zero-sum, kill-or-be-killed thinking is
necessarily realism or wisdom. The examples of it leading to peace,
security and prosperity are arguably few. It leading to escalating
warfare, brinksmanship and high taxes are many.
Also, there are very strong arguments that our chosen policy,
especially Bay of Pigs and refusal to buy sugar, pushed Castro into the
arms of the Soviets. Just like our anti-Khomeini policy led to the
arming and enabling of Hussein, or the anti-Soviet policy led to the
ascendancy of the Taliban and the moral energizing of Islamofascists.
Our policies have SUCKED in terms of blowback, escalation and moral
hypocrisy. Those policies had authors acting in our name and on our
behalf; today we call them "neo-cons".
The left, right and center need to start connecting the dots--because
they are acting in our name and the results of "neo-con" policies do
not, have not, and cannot make Americans safer or well-regarded around
the world. Feared, resented and envied--yes. Trusted, admired and
emulated--no.
The results, by and large, have been failures and in many cases
resulted in shameful, deadly tragedies--just like Iraq policy is
unfolding as an incompetent mess.
The point is that the "neo-con" ideology in economics and beligerent
security policy has a history of failure that is real. Focus on the
results, not the promises and rhetoric--they reveal a lot.
Loathsomeness does seem a pretty strong word for the leader of a
country that has a better educational and health care system than any
other in the region.
And lets face it, it's not like we haven't made it a habit of
subverting the electorial process of just moderatly progressive
governments all over the region on a regular basis. Well that and over
throwing them when we couldn't subvert them.
You have got to compare Cuba with other third world countries, then ask yourself whose citizens are better off?
The fact that Orlando Bosch, was acquitted of those charges, by 2 out of the three Venezuelan
courts, yet spent seven more years in prison;
that evidence has come out that a former G-2 agent, turned FBI/DEA/CIA and Venezuelan interior
ministry employee, turned big time drug gangster
Ricardo Morales, was actually
responsible...Besides what does that matter, Sean
Macbride was IRA, yet that didn't stop the accolades he got for Amnesty
International. Arafat is personally responsible for the deaths of Cleo
Noel, & George Moore (Khartroum, 1973)
suspected in connection with Ambassador Meloy and
his driver Zohr Moghrabi (Beirut,1976) and if one
follows Bob Baer, linked to the bombings in Beirut, 1983-84. In
addition, the comparison between the heath and welfare in Cuba vis a vis
other Latin neighbors; is misleading. If not
for Castro's rise, the militaries wouldn't have
had an excuse, to leave their barracks, as they
did the 60s and 70s
The fact that Orlando Bosch, was acquitted of those charges, by 2 out of the three Venezuelan
courts, yet spent seven more years in prison;
that evidence has come out that a former G-2 agent, turned FBI/DEA/CIA and Venezuelan interior
ministry employee, turned big time drug gangster
Ricardo Morales, was actually
responsible...Besides what does that matter, Sean
Macbride was IRA, yet that didn't stop the accolades he got for Amnesty
International. Arafat is personally responsible for the deaths of Cleo
Noel, & George Moore (Khartroum, 1973)
suspected in connection with Ambassador Meloy and
his driver Zohr Moghrabi (Beirut,1976) and if one
follows Bob Baer, linked to the bombings in Beirut, 1983-84. In
addition, the comparison between the heath and welfare in Cuba vis a vis
other Latin neighbors; is misleading. If not
for Castro's rise, the militaries wouldn't have
had an excuse, to leave their barracks, as they
did the 60s and 70s
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